The Radiance and Risks of Mythmaking

It must be said as exactly as possible: the mythmaker is not a special kind of person, but every person is a special kind of mythmaker. First, however, it must be agreed that every person is a special kind of dreamer. Our dreams may not please us, but they are us – the slumbering storyteller, mysterious, funny and mad, waiting there in wings of our darkened theater, always impatient for a signal of delight – only then can be gathered all the other characters of intelligence to be joined on stage for all the sublime pitfalls of: now let me tell you a story.

I am not attempting a text book history of myth. Rather my wish is to point to those markings which validate authentic myth, separating it from popular forms not rooted in immortal longings.